We all know Android Pay as Google's mobile payments app, but to date, it still only supports 14 countries. In India, however, the landscape is a little different, leading Google to develop Tez, an India-exclusive app that will allow users to make payments, split bills, and more.

Tez was rumored to be launched on September 18th (which is today). It's advertised as a way to send money, split food bills, or pay local businesses seamlessly through your phone. Unlike some other "mobile wallets," it draws money directly from your bank account, eliminating the need to refill the app. It's a part of India's payment standard, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), meaning that it works with all 55 major banks in the program. Google is also partnering with redBus and PVR Cinemas at launch, as well as Domino's, dishtv, Jet Airways, and more in the coming weeks to allow users to pay through the companies' apps or websites. As long as they're UPI-compliant, Tez will work.

Features of Tez include "Tez Shield," an always-on guard that prevents hacking and fraud with a 24/7 live chat/call team; "Cash Mode," which enables you to pay nearby Tez users without having to share bank info or phone numbers via Audio QR technology; and "Tez Scratch Cards," which you can earn and win up to ₹1,000 per week through. Tez uses your contact list to organize transactions in a chat-like manner, allowing you to better keep track of payments. Plus, on "Lucky Sundays," you'll be able to win up to 1 lakh ( ₹100,000). Money transfers are limited to ₹1,00,000 (yes, it's actually written like that) per day through UPI apps and 20 transfers per day.

Tez is currently exclusive to India, but more Asian countries like Indonesia and the Philippines should follow if the trademarks that Google's recently registered can be trusted. Language support is great, with English, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu all there.

And if you're a business owner who would like to integrate Tez into your company, you can visit Tez for Business here. Participants will be able to accept secure UPI payments, get their own Business Channel, and send out reminders to customers for recurring charges or personalized offers.

The app is live now on the Google Play Store and iOS's App Store. If you can't see it on the Play Store and would like to have a look of your own for whatever reason, you can grab it from APK Mirror. Tez will come preloaded on upcoming phones from Lava, Micromax, Nokia, and Panasonic.

It should be, but it's not. Which is to say it's not _ultra_ enough, this one is pretty audible.

Now, human beings lose the ability to hear higher pitches as they grow older, and I do hear higher than most people my age, but that even my (older) neighbor can hear it on her phone says that they didn't set their frequency high enough for an appreciable sliver of the population.

That said, she didn't seem to find it as annoying as I do, so I'm probably still an outlier here.

Mr.B

Nope, you're not the only one. I'm 24 and I found it annoying too.

Drakenoid

I can't hear it at all and I can also hear ultrasonic better than most. Maybe it's due to the phone.

I suspect that too, which is why I went and got my neighbors to test it.

So far, Lenovo P2, Moto C Plus, Moto G4, that second generation Micromax Android One, and Xiaomi Redmi 3 or 4 (don't remember) all make audible noises for me and the respective owners (except for the owner of the G4 who, despite being pretty young, can't hear any of the signals from any of the phones.)

Science! :D

Drakenoid

So turns out I can hear it on my father's Redmi Note 3 but not any other phone and no one else can hear it on his phone. So I guess it really depends on the phone. I've tried it with some Samsung phone, some Micromax phone and my Mi 5.

Tamonas Pal

Another UPI app. Now, there are like what 50 UPI apps in India.

Ailín Ó’S

Just like how many X Pay (Google, Apple, Samsung, LG, Huawei, Mi) apps there are in the rest of the world! :(

White Pawn

UPI is universal. You can use any app you like. Just use your friend's UPI handle (@upi or custom @upi) to send money using your favorite app, and your friend will receive it irrespective of what app they are using.
It is a standardized protocol. So 50 apps is not a bad thing.

Bhai that's what he's saying, it doesn't matter how many UPI apps are there like it doesn't matter how many browsers are there, you use your favourite and everyone else does the same because they all work with each other without any need for anything new.

Tez will certainly have an exclusive market in India and of course it should succeed. But there is no guarantee. Google is bringing nothing innovative these days. India already has the most popular Paytm. Is there space for others? Of course, there is. Will it succeed? Hard to say anything about that.

akshay7394

Actually, as somebody that's always been a promoter of paytm, I find this a lot easier - we did a couple of test transactions and they were done in seconds. Very convenient layout as well compared to the insanely crowded layout of paytm

UPI is Internet based money transfer that takes place in seconds cross-banks. It does not need any kinda physical card reading/swiping machine. That's why no need of NFC. Imagine Google Wallet backend is implemented by govt. of India and APIs are open for 3rd party apps to build app. Only difference is that UPI does not need pre loading money, it directly pulls and pushes money from banks.

M Gordon

Why doesn't Google add all these features to Android Pay (like sending cash to people so I won't need to use the cash app)?

A lot of the app's content is specific to India. India already has their own payments standard which would have no use for Europe or the Americas, essentially adding bloat to the app for everyone else.

Also, could you imagine Google offering scratch cards with the possibility to earn USD just by using Android Pay?

mikeym0p

This looks so much better than Android Pay, I would very much like to see these features in america. It's a shame the infrastructure isn't there.

Drakenoid

Well it's based on UPI an Indian payment standard, America would've to implement something similar or talk with Indian government and NPCI to implement it there.

humaira arif

i want it i n pakistan too

Snehal Naik

For non-Indian readers: Just in case you were curious what it meant, "Tez" means quick/fast in Hindi (and Urdu too, I suppose).